I think the most important aspect of the weekend, as Garrett suggested, was that this young team came away with two hard fought, physical W's in terrible conditions, across the country, against two quality programs! They may not have been pretty, but they show up as gritty wins!!

Road trip musings: 2 goals by Jackman turned out to be huge ... who would have predicted this was her weekend to shine? And a goal by Olivier! Goes to show that the whole team from starters to subs to defenders can AND MUST step up every game. The fact that the Pilots can shuttle players in and out and still get a great result speaks to the skill and preparations by the coaching staff to have everyone game-ready.

Foxhoven will surely miss Enyeart toward playoff time -- they have a rapport that's hard to match.

Friday's game vs UW gives us Portlanders a chance to stand up and cheer the team for a great road weekend.

With all the different people adding their thoughts and news and links and even an eyewitness account, Pilot Nation did build a picture of the Penn Sate game for us diehard fans. Thanks to all! Makes me glad to be able to see the team in person soon, and it reminds me of our duty and pleasure to send along a clear picture of the game to those who can't be at Merlo.

Auto Pilot wrote:FAN I think the information vacuum caused by 1. away game, 2. no live stats 3. Hasty short reporting by both schools caused the feeding frenzy this morning.

I think that makes a lot of sense, Auto. (Sometimes I need a good kick upside the head to bring me back down to reality.)

However, while I certainly agree with you, I still believe it shows how popular the Pilots are getting. Their mainstream media coverage has never been better. (Oldtimers correct me if I'm wrong on this.)

I just can't imagine that many folks on PN one year ago. I remember last season we had road games where GameTracker was really dodgy, and several of us huddled in the chatbox trying to figure out what was going on. Sometimes the main topics would be void of people and we just had our little chatbox to console ourselves.

My memory is admittedly not too reliable. Anyone concur with what I'm trying to say, or dispute what I'm trying to say?

I just think we've grown substantially in a year, and I believe there are probably a lot of guests logged on just checking out what they've been reading in the paper or seeing on TV.

Geezer - From what I have gathered, Penn State actually played us really tough.

At least a couple people who saw the match said it was much closer than the final score. I know they had at least one goal scored called back because it came off an indirect free kick, and of course, for those of you novices out there, you can score a goal on a direct free kick, but not on an indirect free kick. (One of our experts can give a more in depth explanation of that rule. And what consitutes a direct vs an indirect kick. I guess I'm kind of a novice,too. Aw, shucks!)

Ninjapizza, who was at the game, gave props to Penn State during the match on more than one occasion for causing the Pilots some real close calls. Kelsey was great in goal, according to Garrett, and seemed to prevent the match from being much closer. This was a very tough team we beat, Geez. It just shows our talent and depth that we started scoring multiple goals in a match that could have been decided 2-1 or even gone into overtime. I think we beat two very physical, tough teams this weekend on the road and in the rain. A very good and satisfying road trip for our purple heroes.

Well FANatic, the first thing about an indirect vs. direct is what you said--the kick must touch someone other than the player kicking it before a goal can be scored. If the ball goes into the goal directly from an indirect free kick, the restart is a goal kick (because you kicked it over your opponent's goal line). You can't score an own goal, either--in this case it's a corner for the other team. The referee indicates an indirect free kick by holding one hand above his head until the ball touches another player. This is all described in NCAA Rule 13.1.2 or FIFA Law 13.

The most common reason by far for an IFK is an offside violation. An IFK can also be awarded for dangerous play, obstructing, a goalkeeper holding the ball more than 6 seconds, a goalkeeper handling a ball kicked by a teammate, and many more violations listed in NCAA Rules 12.7-12.11 and 13.4. See also FIFA Laws 12 and 13, which say pretty much the same thing with fewer words.

Geez I am pretty sure Graham was there. You don't get a visual like this from video of the game. This is a man who got soaked and walked through the flotsam and jetsum of a day old tailgate for Paterno's raiders

Perhaps the bucolic vistas of rural Pennsylvania could keep landscape painters busy for weeks, but it was fitting that the backdrop for Sunday's game in Happy Valley was heavier on the soggy remnants of the previous day's football tailgating in the pastures around Jeffrey Field and its gridiron neighbor than on rolling hills and sunny skies. Between an early start time (the equivalent of 8 a.m. for the visitors from Oregon) and a persistent rain that tailed off only late in the second half, the game felt about as fluid as anything else that occurs on a college campus before noon on Sundays.

There is something fundamentally wrong with Higher Education Organization (Big 10 Network) essentially plagarizing the website of another Higher Education University website (goPSUsports). This is the third variation on the caption for the same article in the last 36 hours. What ever happened to 'reprinted with permission from ......"?

I suppose I should give a more full game report. This game was so much better than the Rutgers one. It was a real treat. You Portland locals don't know how good you have it, getting to see your favorite team nearly every week.

I missed the first goal because I was busy texting that the game had just kicked off. Once Penn State pulled it back though, I remember thinking, "It could be back and forth like this all day," and it really was. The scoreline makes it look like we really trounced them, but I feel like the Pilots were just better at making them pay for their mistakes than they were at making us pay for ours.

I feel that if we had a lesser player at any one position, this would have been a very different result.

It was another physical game with a lot of rough tackles from both teams. Nothing was malicious, I think, except for maybe all of Penn State seeming to pick on Keelin Winters. The Pilots definitely were winning the midfield contest, which is probably why Penn State was content to let their speedy forwards try to battle through our defense. It worked more times than I was comfortable with, but luckily the Lions' finishing touch was not there.

I'm not good at giving away player of the game awards, but for me it probably goes to Michelle O. Just a freshman holding down the central defense and scoring a great goal (pretty much textbook: she was left alone near the outside of the penalty box and Megan's corner kick went straight to her). Kelsey might be the close runner up, since she made some really great saves and you can hear her from any point in the stadium (which a PennState fan noted).

I had no idea that Elli and Michelle E. got in so late. I really did not show in their game. Michelle was outrunning pretty much everyone to get to the endline. She makes that run so many times, you'd think defenders would catch on, but either they don't or they can't do anything about it. I'm guessing the latter. Elli did make one dribbling run into the box that almost made me want to chant "Pass pass pass pass," but she managed to go through pretty much the entire team but couldn't get a shot off.

As far as other players go... I think I've seen better distributing games from Keelin, but her hustle back to defense can often make up for a bad touch here and there. Megan R.'s shot isn't quite there yet. She's still so good in the air, I don't know why she's not more of a target there. Jessica Tsao is still on form. I think she's the new Stephanie Lopez, putting in really solid and understated performances.

That's probably enough out of me. I might normally have more things to say, but I took no notes at the game and it was raining. It's hard to concentrate when your feet are getting wet! I've no idea how the players do it.

Thanks Ninja,You have gone above and beyond the call of duty texting to let us all know what was happening instead of just taking it in like I usually do. Thank you!

It's hard to concentrate when your feet are getting wet! I've no idea how the players do it.

These players work in the cold,sleet and freezing rain day in and day out. Most of them have since they were little kids. Its one of the reasons I admire the Portland players so much. I live in SoCal where it is warm and dry all the time. People actually put off activities if it rains. Imagine that in Portland. No they just pull up the wet socks, take a drink of the rain and keep playing to stay warm until it is so cold even playing won't keep them warm and still they play.

It's hard to concentrate when your feet are getting wet! I've no idea how the players do it.

...........

These players work in the cold,sleet and freezing rain day in and day out. Most of them have since they were little kids. Its one of the reasons I admire the Portland players so much. I live in SoCal where it is warm and dry all the time. People actually put off activities if it rains. Imagine that in Portland. No they just pull up the wet socks, take a drink of the rain and keep playing to stay warm until it is so cold even playing won't keep them warm and still they play.

That's one of the things that gives UP an advantage when the playoffs come and we play at home. Sometimes you'll see warm weather schools come in with the players wearing gloves and woolies. You can tell they are thinking more about the cold and wet than the game. Meanwhile, our players have short sleeves on. Those teams never win.

ninjapizza wrote:I suppose I should give a more full game report. This game was so much better than the Rutgers one. It was a real treat. You Portland locals don't know how good you have it, getting to see your favorite team nearly every week.

I missed the first goal because I was busy texting that the game had just kicked off. Once Penn State pulled it back though, I remember thinking, "It could be back and forth like this all day," and it really was. The scoreline makes it look like we really trounced them, but I feel like the Pilots were just better at making them pay for their mistakes than they were at making us pay for ours.

An interesting analysis. What makes it doubly interesting is that if you read the BigSoccer reports, it could have been a description of Penn State's game with Notre Dame, which ND won 3-1. I believe they are a good team, but something is lacking right now. Maybe it's their finishing, or maybe it's their back line, but they aren't able to stay with the top teams at this point.

And yeah, we do know how good we have it.

Thanks for the text messaging, BTW. It helped on a day when information was hard to get.